Reading the import report

An importer that quietly drops what it cannot handle teaches you not to trust it. So every reader counts what it could not bring across and says why, and you see that before you open the course — not on slide 9 in front of a learner.

The report has two lists with different meanings. Things need rebuilding by hand is loss: something in the source that is not in the new course. Worth knowing is not loss: something that came across in a different form, or a decision the importer made that you might want to revisit.

• Imported and the course title, then N lessons — or N slides, N objects in the Scenes editor when the course came in on the slide canvas (Storyline, a Captivate .cptx, a Classic Captivate publish whose actions keep state, or an all-new one whose slides are also all free-positioned) — and N media files: the images, audio, video and caption files copied into your media library.
• Open in editor opens the right editor for the course; Preview as a learner opens it as a learner sees it.
• Download SCORM 1.2 (block courses) or Export from the Scenes editor (slide courses) gets a package straight away.
• For a slide-canvas import, N accessibility fixes before every learner can use it, counted rule by rule, with Fix accessibility now. See Accessibility triage after an import.

Each line reads count × feature, with a sentence saying why and what to do. The count is how many were affected (for Flash content, how many Flash files). The common ones, by kind:

• Interactivity: from Captivate (Classic, or an all-new publish on the slide canvas), the actions that could not run the same way here — Execute JavaScript actions, Apply Effect actions, actions that depend on the timeline pausing and the rest, each saying why — or, for a course that reflowed, Buttons and click interactions; Actions and variables (Lectora); Evolve triggers and variables; and, from Storyline, the trigger actions that could not run the same way here — Execute JavaScript triggers, Motion paths and animation triggers, Conditions mixing AND with OR, Hover triggers that restore on mouse leave and the rest, each saying why. Rebuild what the course needs, with the slide editor's triggers or the lesson editor's adaptive paths. Storyline's triggers, variables and states that did come across are noted, with counts.
• Questions that could not become gradable questions: Questions without a readable answer key; Survey and Likert questions; Numeric questions with a range; Questions with picture choices; Drag-and-drop questions with pictures or unnamed shapes; Hotspot questions; Scored clicks and buttons. Their text is kept; turn it into a question block.
• Content that was never in the package: Missing media files; Files missing from the package or backup; Lessons hosted outside the package; Images still hosted by Articulate or by the LMS. Upload the file again where the lesson shows it missing.
• Content that cannot run in a browser any more: Flash and plug-in content; Slides and narration (Flash); Quiz questions, answer keys and feedback (Flash); Interaction steps and media (Flash).
• Things embedded from elsewhere: Embedded pages; Web objects; Widgets; Embedded HTML and documents; Documents launched as lessons. Add them back as an embed or a file if still needed.
• Course rules: Sequencing and navigation rules; Lesson prerequisites; Time limits. The imported lessons are open; set completion rules in course settings.
• Form fields and text entry outside questions, Caption tracks to re-attach, and Characters in a subsetted font (a few Storyline glyphs that could not be decoded — check headings for missing letters).

These are not losses. The ones you will see most:

• Slides converted to lessons / Pages converted to lessons — the course reflows now; timing and slide layouts were not kept.
• Graded questions with answer keys — how many questions came across gradable, by type.
• Hotspot questions rebuilt as choices, Drag and drop rebuilt as matching / categorize questions, Click-to-reveal buttons rebuilt as accordion sections, Sorting activities imported as matching — a different control, the same learning, and none of them need a mouse.
• Random question draws, Question pools — the draw was kept: see question pools.
• Result slide pass marks differ, Mastery scores differ, Tests with different pass marks — the source had several pass marks; Scormbusters has one per course, so none was set. Set it in course settings.
• Images without alt text and Hotspot areas without names — the accessibility checker lists them to fix.
• Repeated headers and logos left out, Empty slides left out, Template placeholder text left out, Quiz results slides left out — clutter removed on purpose.
• Closed captions kept as transcripts, Video captions, Narration clips.
• Launch pages followed to their content, Other organizations in the manifest, Lessons hidden from the menu — how the importer found the content.
• Media files that could not be uploaded — those blocks show a missing image until the file is replaced.

These are problems saving the course, not reading it — for example an asset upload that failed, or a module, lesson, slide or set of blocks that could not be written. The rest of the course was saved. If you see many, delete the draft course and import again; if they repeat, tell support with the message text.

Content review could not run means the course imported fine but the optional content review (Review the content after import) did not complete.

If the package was recognized but nothing in it could become editable content, no empty course is created. Instead you get "Nothing in … could be converted" followed by the report's reasons — typically a Flash-only course. See What to try when an import fails for the other messages.

1. Fix the need rebuilding by hand items the course actually needs — many old triggers only drove the player's own Next button, which the new course does not need.
2. Set the passing score if the report says the source had several.
3. Run the accessibility checks — or, for a slide-canvas import, Fix accessibility now: imported images often have alt text that is only a file name.
4. Preview, then export to your LMS.